Certain cooking appliances are provided with a cooktop that has one or more burners for heating kitchen utensils. In certain types of burners, the burner projects from a surface on which the burner is mounted and food particles, dust or the like that fall onto the surface need to be removed therefrom. However, the geometry of the cooktop may make it difficult to remove gathered food particles from the surface. Specifically, the cooktop may have a recessed surface which may make it difficult to extract the food particles even after they are gathered.